 Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak. This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower, and we use words and phrases, especially written for people learning English. Coming up on the program, Katie Weaver has a story on Ukrainians' long journeys to escape Russian occupation. Brian Lin reports on the Paw Paw Tree, and John Russell continues his grammar lesson from last week about recommendations. Later, we go west to California as we continue our series on the national parks. For Rima Yaremenko, the 5,000-kilometer journey to escape Russian occupation ended within sight of where it started. The 68-year-old Ukrainian woman crossed three countries over six days only to settle across the river from her seized hometown. She came a long way by bus through Russia, Latvia, and Poland to be this close. From the Ukrainian-controlled city of Herzog, where she now lives, the outline of Oleshki can be seen. Let the community, with a pre-war population of 25,000, may as well be a world away. Yaremenko lived under Russia's rule for 15 months. She dealt with the sounds of war just to be near her home. In June, the destruction of the Kokovka Dam caused massive flooding and reduced her home to dirt. She faced a difficult choice. Be homeless as the war continues nearby, or take the only way out, a long and unclear journey through Russia. We didn't want to go, but once we were flooded, I decided there's nothing to stay for, she said. Hundreds of others left, too. They left their flooded homes to travel long distances of occupied land, past checkpoints, and through Russian cities, all to reach the borders of the European Union. Now beyond the reach of Russian officials, escapees told the Associated Press about their lives under Russian occupation and their escape. Continuous shelling became too much for those already struggling with homelessness and limited drinking water. Most did not have the money to rebuild. Russian officials offered $100 to deal with the flooding. Lana, 43, left Oleshki on June 19th and arrived in her zone over a week later. She said, my house was unlivable. She added that water pipes were broken and dirty and there was human waste. She said it was impossible to breathe. At first, Ukrainians in occupied territories hoped the Ukrainian military would free them, but the longer they remained, the more they feared pressure to get Russian passports. The AP spoke to nine people who left Oleshki from June 13th to July 1st. The only way out of the occupied part of the her zone area was through Crimea, which Russia took from Ukraine in 2014. Travelers had to be processed in the town of Armensk. Phones were inspected and email passwords were collected. Others suspected of working with Ukrainian forces were questioned or detained, in some cases never to be seen again. Nely Isaeva is the director of Helping to Leave, an organization that works remotely to help Ukrainians who want to escape Russian occupation. She said some are unable to pass simply because they lost their documents and have no money. A woman who remains in Oleshki said life under occupation has become harder over time. The Russians began to act more harshly than before, she said. She did not give her name out of fear for her safety. Russian soldiers now check the documents of locals, for example, when visiting the market. For that reason, the woman and her family avoid leaving the house. Many people get by on the food that remains after others leave. They give us their stocks, she said. I'm Katie Weaver. It can be difficult to know which plants and trees will perform best and produce healthy fruits and vegetables where you live. For Americans, one possible choice is the papa, a tree that looks tropical but is native to much of North America. Associated Press writer Jessica Demiano is an expert in plants and gardening. She writes, also known as Hoosier Banana, poor man's banana and false banana, the sadly underused papa will transport you to the tropics. Papa trees can be found growing wild from southern Ontario in Canada to neighboring Michigan in the northern United States. The trees are also commonly found in western New York and in the southern states of Texas and Florida. Papas are known to grow well across large areas of the U.S. The small triangular trees can reach heights up to nearly eight meters. They love humid weather and are highly resistant to freezing. The branches are covered by maroon-colored blossoms in the spring. Then groups of heavy eight to twelve centimeter long fruits that look like mangoes start to develop. In autumn, the trees yellow or gold leaves will brighten your property and deer usually avoid the trees. Demiano writes that papa care is quite easy compared to many kinds of fruit trees. The trees should be placed in areas that receive full or partial sunlight. It is also good to provide some wind protection. And papas should be planted in well-draining, slightly acidic soil with a pH level between 5.5 and 5.7. A pH level below 7 is considered acidic. Young trees should be watered often for a year or two until they are fully established. Gardeners can also add a 2020-20 fertilizer mix once a month in April, May and June only. As far as other care, you should try to remove any growth that forms around the base of the tree. Papas are not invasive but will expand outward if not controlled. Demiano writes that in most cases, growers will need to start with grafted papas called cultivars to ensure cross-pollination and fruit production. Look for grafted cultivars named Davis, Mary Fuse Johnson, Overleas, Sweet Alice and Taylor. These papas should produce fruit in a few years as opposed to seed-grown trees which can take 6 to 10 years. If you can, avoid buying trees that have been grown in fields and then dug up to sell. This process risks damaging papas' long tap roots. The tap root helps the tree effectively take up water. Harvest the fruits in late summer when they are soft to the touch and easily come apart. To outsmart birds and other wildlife that may try to take perfectly ripe fruit, you can pick them a little sooner. But be aware that hard papas picked too early will not fully ripen once picked. Some people are sure that papa fruit tastes like bananas, while others say they taste more like papayas. Whatever the taste, this highly nutritious fruit is rich in vitamins, minerals and amino acids. It can be eaten straight off the tree or cooked to make foods like puddings, smoothies, muffins, cakes and breads. When preparing those foods, however, the fruits, thick skin and seeds should be thrown away because they can contain poisonous substances. Some people in the U.S. might want to taste papas before making the decision to grow them. But that could be difficult. This is because papa fruits only stay fresh for a few days, making them difficult to transport, so most markets do not carry them. That means one of the only ways to experience papas is to grow them yourself. I'm Brian Lin. Imagine you want to ask for information. Perhaps you are looking for a good restaurant, a nice hotel or a fun activity. How should you ask your question? In this week's everyday grammar, we continue our exploration of recommendations. We will learn about important question words, and you will get a chance to practice what you learn. Let's start with some important terms and ideas. In a recent everyday grammar lesson, we talked about the question word, which. We learned how to use it to ask for a recommendation, a suggestion about a choice or an activity. But we can also use other question words to ask for recommendations. Where, and the verb be, are two nice choices. Let's explore each of these in turn. Imagine you are in a new city. You might ask a friend the following question. Where can I find a good restaurant? Our question word, where, begins the sentence. It tells the listener that you are asking for a location. Then we have the modal verb, can, followed by the subject and main verb, I find. This structure is very common and useful. It is a phrase to memorize. You should be able to produce it without much thinking. Where can I find is followed by a noun phrase. The exactness of this noun phrase can affect the quality of the answer that you receive. Consider this example. Where can I find a restaurant? In the question, where can I find, is followed by the noun phrase, a restaurant. The question is very general. The listener will probably give you the first answer that comes to mind. But we are likely to get a better answer if we ask something like this. Where can I find a good restaurant? Or… Where can I find a good inexpensive restaurant? In both of these examples, we expand our noun phrase to include adjectives such as good and inexpensive. We are giving the listener a little more information and, as a result, we will probably receive a better answer. The listener is more likely to give a good recommendation when you ask a more exact question. So, for example, if you love Indian food, you might ask, Where can I find a good Indian restaurant? Where is one nice question word to use, but the verb be is also useful? We use it to ask what are called yes or no questions. That means a question could be answered with a simple yes or a no. For example, if you are looking for a hotel, you could ask someone, Is there a nice hotel in this area? This question consists of the verb be, the word there, as well as the noun phrase a nice hotel. Please note that additional information about location might be required. That is why our question included in this area. Now, imagine that you are looking for a good restaurant. How might you ask about it? Here is one possibility. Is there a good restaurant near here? Let's take some time to work with these ideas. Use the word where to ask about the noun phrase a good bookstore. Pause the audio to consider your answer. Here is one answer. Where can I find a good bookstore? Now use the verb be to ask about a bookstore. Be sure to ask about location by using the phrase near here. Pause the audio to consider your answer. Here is one answer. Is there a good bookstore near here? The ideas we explored today are a useful way to indirectly get a recommendation. If you take what you have learned today and combine it with the ideas in our earlier report, you will soon be asking for recommendations in English with ease. I'm John Russell. You just heard John Russell present this week's everyday grammar lesson. John joins us now to talk a little more about it. Welcome John. Hi Dan, thanks for having me on the show. In the report, you gave examples about how a person could ask for a recommendation if they are already in a city. But how might the lesson change if the person was asking about the city from a distance? Perhaps they want to ask about a city they plan to visit in the near future. That's a good question. In the lesson, are examples involved near here? As in, is there a good inexpensive restaurant near here? Or, where can I find a good restaurant near here? If we ask about the city from a distance, we can still use our same general structures, but we might change the location we are asking about. So a person might ask, is there a good inexpensive restaurant in that city? Or where can I find a good restaurant in that part of the city? That's correct. I actually just bought tickets to Toronto yesterday for a friend's wedding. I've never been. Do you have any recommendations for what I should see or do John? I've never been, but I've heard that the city has great parks. I've also heard there are some cool islands near the city on Lake Ontario. That sounds nice. We'll have to look that up. Thanks for coming on the show, John. Thank you for having me. See you next time. Today, on our National Park's journey, we visit a land of giants. High up in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. Here you will find the largest living things on Earth, as well as the tallest mountain in the continental United States. You will also find the deepest canyon in America. Welcome to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. The park gets its name from the area's ancient Sequoia trees. They are among the oldest trees on the planet. Millions of years ago, different kinds of Sequoias grew in many different places. Only two kinds exist today. The redwood and the giant Sequoia. Both are found in California. Redwoods are taller, but the trunks of giant Sequoias are much bigger. Sequoia National Park's forests are thick with giant Sequoias. Many of the trees are several thousand years old. The largest is called General Sherman. It is named after a U.S. general in the Civil War, William Tecumseh Sherman. The tree is 31 meters around. It stands almost 84 meters tall, and it continues to grow. It sits within the park's giant forest. The forest is home to over 8,000 Sequoia trees. General Sherman is more than 2,200 years old. It is the world's largest tree in terms of the amount of wood it contains. The National Park Service says if the tree were cut down, it would provide a huge amount of wood construction planks. It says if they were laid end to end, they would stretch for almost 200 kilometers. In the late 1800s, people grew concerned about logging activity in the area. They sought to protect the giant Sequoias from being cut down for wood. One of those people was Walter Frye. In 1888, he came to the Sierra Nevada Mountains as a logger himself. He spent five days with a team of loggers, trying to take down a single giant Sequoia tree. Frye then decided to count the tree's rings to learn its age. The answer shocked and saddened him. The tree they had cut down was more than 3,200 years old. He and his team of loggers had ended thousands of years of growth. The experience led Frye to change jobs. He became a naturalist. He studied the trees and measured the size of fallen Sequoias. He also joined the fight to protect them from future loggers. When a petition was created to urge Congress to create a national park in the area, Frye was the third person to sign it. Sequoia National Park was established on September 25, 1890. It became the country's second national park after Yellowstone. In 1940, Congress established another park near Sequoia, King's Canyon. It and Sequoia National Park have been managed together since 1943. King's Canyon is home to the deepest canyon in the United States, as well as a famous Sequoia forest called Grant Grove. Here you will find the world's second biggest tree. The General Grant Tree. It is over 3,000 years old. Along with the world's biggest trees, the area is also home to one of America's highest peaks, Mount Whitney. It measures 4,414 meters. It lies in the eastern part of Sequoia National Park. While many visitors travel here to witness the giant Sequoias, some visitors also come here to climb Mount Whitney. The climbing trail itself begins at an elevation of over 2,400 meters, already very high for some people. Many hikers experience altitude sickness while trying to reach the top. More than 30,000 people try to climb Mount Whitney each year. Only about 10,000 reach the top. Of course, the park offers less extreme hikes as well. One of the most popular is the Morro Rock Trail. Morro Rock itself rises more than 2,000 meters. But hikers only need to climb the final 90 meters to reach the top. From there, they are rewarded with stunning views, the towering Sierra Nevada mountains and kilometers of giant Sequoia forests. Climbers also get a view of the 90 kilometer long Kawea River, which runs through a deep canyon. Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park is home to a richly diverse animal world. More than 300 species of wildlife live in the park. Mammals include the tiny white-footed mouse, the gray fox and the bobcat. Black bears are also common. Giant species include the California quail, the northern owl, and the acorn woodpecker. There are also many animals that swim, slither, hop, or crawl. Visitors might see a northern Pacific tree frog, a western pond turtle, or the colorful rainbow trout. If you are lucky, you will not run into one of the park's poisonous wild rattlesnakes. But do not let bears and snakes scare you away. Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park is too extraordinary to miss. The words of the late naturalist John Muir perfectly describe a visit to this great park. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. I'm Katie Weaver. And I'm Ashley Thompson. And that's our program for today. Join us again tomorrow to keep learning English through stories from around the world. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak.